American Jezebels

[libodem]

The first female heretic on the North American shore was Anne Hutchinson. Arriving in the Puritan theocracy of Boston in 1634, Hutchinson became a serious threat to that church-state when she began holding discussion groups for women in her home, daring to critique the sermons and theology of male ministers. Authorities became alarmed when men, too, began listening to her, and her follower Sir Henry Vane even (temporarily) defeated John Winthrop as governor. Hutchinson's supporters were persecuted, Hutchinson was banished by the Massachusetts General Court for sedition and heresy in 1637, then she was excommunicated, "cast out" and delivered to "Satan as a "Heathen" and a "Leper." Her Quaker supporter Mary Dyer was hanged in the Boston Commons in 1660 as a heretic, and the Salem witch trials followed. Hutchinson's followers settled briefly on the island of Aquidneck, Rhode Island, and under her influence, adopted a civil, secular government which made the first declaration of religious freedom in America: "It is ordered that none shall be accounted a delinquent for doctrine" She was the first woman in America to demand the right of individual judgment upon religious questions.

[Finder]

1. Mary Baker Eddy

founded the sect "Christian Scientists" and is seen as a heretic, new ager, fanatic etc. by the mainstream.

Excerpt:

Many of her ideas ran counter to the currents of 19th-century medicine, religion and society. Undaunted by a lack of formal education, resources, and the many basic rights women have fought hard to gain since then, Eddy persevered. The system of healing she discovered enabled her to heal many who were sick or debilitated. She lectured and preached in living rooms and rented halls, and established a college to teach others how to heal.

Eddy’s many other accomplishments include the establishment of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (churchofchristscientist.org), a worldwide community based on the teachings in Science and Health. She started several magazines and a publishing company, all of which are still thriving today.

One of her most well-known publications is the award-winning daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor (csmonitor.com). The Monitor has 25 news bureaus around the world and has been awarded seven Pulitzer prizes.

[efhmc]

3. What is strange is that the 2 women I know who are CS are

pretty nonfeminist, not toally RW but certainly very traditional.

[geniph]

4. Also, look at one of the founders of the modern fundies,

a woman, Aimee Semple McPherson - the churches which can directly trace their lineage to her preaching nearly all forbid women to be ministers. Ah, and I'm sure virtually none of them even see the irony of that...

McPherson was something of a con artist, but she was directly responsible for the founding of the Four Square Gospel movement, which bred a lot of the other fundie sects.

[Eloriel]

2. Fascinating

Thanks.

[bleedingheart]

5. The book American Jezebel is about Anne Hutchinson

and it was written by one of her descendants.

She was very religious in her own right and actually was not so much critiquing the sermons of the ministers but having the equivalent of bible study/discussion....

....what I think based on the book that caused her to become an outcast was the fact that she and her husband were prosperous and she and he had a number of healthy living children.....she was 46 and pregnant with number 16 when she was put on trial...(one of her last pregnancies was most likely a molar pregnancy and a very deformed baby was delivered..this was part of the "evidence" against her)